Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. It was so nice to be able to spend this thanksgiving with my family, because it was the first thanksgiving that I have had off since I have been at Duke. Sydney and myself started off the morning with breakfast in Pilot at the Lions club. This was always a tradition growing up where I would have breakfast on thanksgiving day with my daddy and I wanted to continue this on with Sydney, so me, Sydney, my dad, Guy and Hunter all had breakfast on thanksgiving and I think this was the first time this has happened in years. Then after breakfast we went home and mommy cooked and Sydney and I also watched the Macy Day parade which was also something I enjoyed growing up.....this just increased my desire of wishing I lived in NYC! Then for lunch it was off to Rufies which is where we spend all of our holidays. This is something that is near and dear to my heart. This family is our family and without them in my life I would have lost my way long ago.

Spending thanksgiving riding in the Hatcher wagon......Thank you Uncle Tim!

Thanksgiving PAR-TAY

The Tuesday before thanksgiving, Sydneys class had a thanksgiving fun day. They spent the entire day going to different kindergarten classes and doing different crafts and watching videos. This whole day was right up Sydneys alley because it meant NO TEACH TIME! She came home with the cutest thanksgiving hat....I love all the crafts that Sydney makes and I have boxes and boxes of these things. I save every paper from school, every report card, and every craft. They made a pumpkin, and took and apple and made a turkey and made a sticker paper of pilgrims and Indians and a thanksgiving feast. She had a wonderful day.....and every better she was on green for the day...WOOHOO!!

Raleigh Christmas Parade

This morning sydney and myself got up bright and early and headed out to downtown Raleigh to see the Christmas Parade. This is something that we have done every year since sydney was two years old. It is so special to me because I love to watch her face as she sees all of the big floats and characters come down the parade route. This year, we had the best seats. We could see the parade coming straight in front of us and we were also sitting right where the parade turned, IT WAS GREAT! The only tough part was when we parked I had to lug two camp chairs, our bag with our blanket, hot chocolate, tea, and breakfast and keep up with my girl.....next year maybe I will take my wagon!

When I asked Sydney what was her favorite part of the parade she told me spending time with me!!! She melts my heart!!! She is the greatest thing in my life and I am so blessed to be her mommy!

Come Here Muddy....Let me give you a big Hug!
Shaking hands with Wake County EMS Panda

Sydney loved the Scooby and friends float.....she had mommy take lots of pictures of Scooby and Shaggy.

Look Mommy, its Santa's elves!

Santa's elves looking for Santa......sure hope they find him...:)

We waited so long just to see Santa come to town......So exciting.

Out to the Movies

Today is veterans day so we spent the day going to see Disney Christmas Carol and then out to lunch at Mello Mushroom with some great friends. It is such a rainy and messy day, so it was nice to spend such a yucky day at the movies. Sydney must always have her "chocolate crunch" when we go to the movies and I always get popcorn that she eats. The movie was in 3D and it was great. I really enjoyed it but there were many parts there were scary for sydney. But all in all I think she enjoyed it. I love these mommy-n-me days, they are the BEST!!

Sydney is ready with popcorn and buncha crunch and Mr. pibb.....talk about an energy rush... and Savannah is not so sure about this move thing....

Everyone get your glasses on....

We went and had pizza at Mello Mushroom, one of our favorites! What a great day!!

Lunch time

Yesterday at Sydneys school that had the "main event" which was where if you sold 10 items from the candy man catalog you were allowed to go the gym and play games and play on the inflatables. So I volunteered and helped out on the ball toss game. So basically, you had a chance to throw two balls than there were like 30 white squares and three colored squares and if you landed on the colored square you got a prize. Well this game was way too hard for these kids so I basically was putting the ball on the color square so that these kids could win a prize.

After the carnival I was able to go and have lunch with Sydney. This was not the first time that I have had lunch with her, but I love each time I go. The first time I went to lunch with her I was amazed at how much she had grown by picking her milk and carrying her tray to the table all by herself. She also told me she is one of the few that knows her lunch number. After lunch they have kids that are "table washers" and their "job" is to clean the table while everyone else throws their plate away and gets in line to go back to class. I am so thankful for a job that allows me to have days that I can go and volunteer and have lunch with Sydney because a day will come where she will not want to sit at the lunch table with me at school and this day will break my heart.

End of first Nine weeks.....

Today was report card day, and I had already had the parent/teacher conference with Mrs. Phipps to review Sydneys report card on Tuesday. Let me start by saying that I am SO PROUD of Sydney and all that she has accomplished this nine weeks. When she started school back in september she was really struggling with her behavior because she is very chatty and she was pretty on purple at least every other day. And she was always having to fish because of talking or playing in class or in the line. Well, over the last month sydney is on green most days and sometimes yellow thrown in there but for the week she at least has 3-5 greens. And this is HUGE for Sydney.

Sydney recieved all S's in areas of math such as matching number sets, counting to 30 and describing likenesses and differences of objects in the environment.

In reading she in on a level 2, and they need to be on level 6 by the end of the year, but level 2 is where the teacher said she should be. She also knows all the letters of the alphabet, can write most of them and knows all of their sounds.

Some big things that we have to work on are the fact that Sydney is rushing thru her work wanting to be the first to finish and then she is making mistakes, hence why her math average was 85. Mrs. Phipps said she started off great and then began rushing and not completing her work correctly so therefore it brought her average down. Sydney knows her colors and her shapes.

Her strengths on her report card were her letter/number recognition, letter sounds and overall a good student. She needs improvement in her work habits and continuing to work on her reading.

I am so proud of her!!

Happy Halloween!!

What a wonderful Halloween the Spanish Princess has had...We started the weekend off with going with some besties to a fall festival at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Sydney had a wonderful time playing the games and came home with an insane amount of candy, that she will probably never eat. Sydneys favorite game at the festival was bobbing for apples and the cake walk. She went bobbing for apples twice because she said she needed to get an apple to take home for PaPa. And when walking on the cake walk, the music stopped and they called her number and she won and was so excited she ran up to the table and grabbed this plate of colorful cupcakes and she was so proud of what she had won.

Doing a little beanbag toss, Sydney was so good at the games.....she would play the game, and get the candy and take off for the next booth.

Sydney with her "12 cupcakes" that she won from the cake walk...when her number was called she ran up to the table and snatched this box because she had been eyeing the brightly colored cupcakes.

Sydney bobbing for apples, this was the first time that she had done this and she loved this game...

On Saturday we started the day early with going with our besties again to another fall festival, we were a little concerned because the day started off raining and muddy, but after a little prayer, it turned out to be a beautiful day. We played more games and played on the inflatables and ate a great lunch. Sydneys favorite was the big inflatable slide and the "finding a needle in a haystack game" which was lots of hay bales with some colorful toothpicks in them that the kids could find and get treats.

Sydney finding a needle in a haystack, she like this game so much that we played it twice.

After the fall festival we had to go and get ready to go to Jacksons 1st birthday party/costume party. We had to get another costume because after 2 fall festivals, one which was outside and a little muddy, we needed to retire the Spanish Princess. So Sydney decided she wanted a Wonder Woman costume. So the Super hero was off to party and play with her cousins, and we had a wonderful time. And after the birthday party we went and did a little trunk-a-treating and got more candy....

My little Super Hero...

The cowboy, wonder woman, and Cinderella spinning on the tire swing.

Sydney excited about her candy at the trunk-a-treat, and ready for next trunk.